Help finding an old post: Mathlete's study on ToP
Sorry, but I've been looking for it for half an hour and I can't find it for the life of me. The mathlete (I think? Maybe I have that wrong) put together a study on time of possession, and I believe that the conclusion was that it actually tired out the offense more than the opposing defense. Not trying to start another argument, I think most of us agree it's a useless stat, I'm just looking for the post.
Thanks in advance
Just my 2c but it seems like ToP and who gets tired more is relative to the players on both offense and defense. If the defense is much more conditioned than the offense, trying to pound the ball the whole game probably would not be the best idea. It works the other way too. This was probably discussed in the diary...
Defense is more tiring to play than offense - almost everyone agrees on that. The offense has the big advantage of knowing where the ball is going, while the defense has to anticipate where it might go and then rapidly react if out of position.
I think there is something to the idea that long drives fatigue defenses, but people should focus more on total offensive plays instead of TOP, which is going to favor teams that run the ball most of the time.
Saw the Math signal in the air and got here as quickly as I could.
Don't think I have done anything specifically on time of possession (but agree with the general conclusion). You might be thinking of my Myths of Manball post where I dispell the myth that long drives rest a defense.
http://mgoblog.com/content/mid-week-metrics-mythbusters-manball-edition
Other than that you must be thinking of someone else
There we go! No wonder I had trouble finding it, thanks for the find (and the work).